An excellent novel set on the north shore of Morecambe Bay in the area around Grange. The landscape around the Bay has inspired not only this author but also Andrew Michael Hurly on the south side. The surrounding farm lands and fells are pretty but not exceptional but the huge tide swept bay seems to inspire fiction rooted in mysterious folk tales. Here we have the daughter returning to the abandoned childhood house where her mother died. Memories create disturbance. Those disturbances the author personifies as shapeless voices which good be ghost, spirits or the soul of the house. In the end all turns out for the best but with a lingering doubt of events re-occuring in the future. ( )

Following the deaths of her parents Annette has inherited a large house on the northern shores of Morecambe Bay. Two huge sycamore trees grow in the garden, insidiously growing into the foundations and populated by starlings. The house was owned by Annette's parents and her return stirs their spirits as they narrate the story of Netty's battle with cancer and the mysterious young man who came into their lives at this time.
I really wanted to love this book but for some reason it just didn't click with me, the reviews are excellent and it is obvious that Ashworth is an evocative and powerful writer. The story just didn't engage me and I found myself reading it at a very superficial level which is not what it deserves. ( )

Fell is beautifully written and was a pleasure to read. Jenn Ashworth creates many haunting, beautiful and vivid pictures and has a wonderful way with words. I particularly loved how the house was portrayed, the descriptions of the decaying house really brought the place to life. But, I struggled to connect to her characters. The characters were individual enough but I couldn't picture them, I couldn't relate to them or get to know them on the level that I felt was needed. They were, literally, characters on the page, they didn't have enough substance or colour to make them stand out.

The book is narrated by the ghosts of the main characters parents and although I did enjoy them taking me through their lives, I found them rather flat and emotionless at times. The distance between them and what they were watching felt huge, like they weren't a part of what they were reliving, I wanted more emotion from them. It was like they were watching someone else's lives, reliving someone else's memories, not their own.

I am left with many questions. Every page read as though it was floating on the surface of something deeper. The book doesn't tell a full story, nor does it give me enough to fill in the gaps. Who is Tim really? What exactly is this strange power he has? What happened to Annette between then and now to make her the way she is? What was the fortune teller hinting at with Annette and her gifts? Is Annette's gift part of what drew her parents back? What was it that Tim saw in Annette?

I kept reading on expecting to learn more, to have answers to these questions. I set my hopes on there being some big finale that rounded everything off in the end, but the story just kind of fizzled out.

Fell wasn't an awful read, the writing alone was worth the time invested but the story itself felt superficial. Rather than having experienced a journey along with the characters, I feel instead that I was sat on the sidelines, watching their life story through a window. ( )